by Rabbi BenTzion Grossman
My niece, Chaya, is the daughter of Rabbi Yitzchak David Grossman, Rabbi of Migdal HaEmek and director of Migdal Ohr institutions in Israel. The events described below occurred immediately after Passover, 5745 (1985). Chaya was then sixteen-and-a-half years old.
The school Chaya attended, Bait Chana in Safed, had organized a special trip, which included a tour of the graves of tzadikim in the Galilee.
On the way to one of the graves, a friend of Chaya's rubbed against a pointed tree branch. The point snapped back into Chaya's eye. At that moment, Chaya's eye blew up out of all proportion, and her face became twisted. She was immediately rushed to the hospital.
After a preliminary examination in the intensive care unit, the doctors said that she had suffered a serious injury. They believed that her sight could never be restored.
As soon as my brother and family heard the doctor's prognosis, they took Chaya to the best eye specialists they could find. For the next six months they traveled with Chaya across the country visiting doctor after doctor, but nothing helped. All the doctors gave the same opinion: Chaya would never see out of that eye again.
Sometime later, my brother was in the United States on behalf of Migdal Ohr Institutions in Migdal HaEmek. His friends had heard about the tragedy, and they suggested that Rabbi Grossman bring his daughter to New York and visit a famous eye specialist in Manhattan. My brother asked the advice of the Rebbe. The Rebbe responded that it was a good idea.
Rabbi Grossman called his family and asked that Chaya fly to the United States to be examined by the specialist. With her medical records in hand, Chaya set out.
When Chaya arrived in New York she said that she wanted to ask for the Rebbe's blessing before undergoing the crucial tests. She knew that if this specialist came to the same conclusions as the doctors in Israel had, there really was no hope.
A few minutes before 10:00 a.m. Rabbi Grossman stood with Chaya at the entrance to "770," waiting for the Rebbe to arrive. The Rebbe arrived at exactly 10:00 and gave some coins to the children standing there to give to charity. Rabbi Grossman became very emotional and cried out, "Rebbe I need a blessing for the recovery of my daughter!"
"Amen," the Rebbe answered, adding, "May she merit Torah, chupah, and good deeds." Then he stared closely at Chaya and said strongly, "A complete recovery!"
At that time, Chaya wore special dark glasses which covered her bloated eye. After the Rebbe's blessing, Chaya left "770" and her father went into the shul there. Suddenly, Chaya's glasses broke. At the same time, she felt a change: The constant pain in her eye and the secretions which flowed from it were subsiding.
At first Chaya thought that she was imagining things, or maybe her glasses breaking had somehow lightened the weight on her eyes. But as the seconds ticked by, Chaya began to see normally. The pain and secretions had stopped.
When Rabbi Grossman returned from shul and saw his daughter, he cried out, "Dear G-d, there is nothing wrong with the eye! It looks completely normal!"
It took my brother a few hours to calm down from the open miracle he had experienced. Only then Chaya reminded him that they had an appointment with the specialist. Perhaps there was no need to keep the appointment; she felt fine.
At first, her father agreed, but then he remembered that the Rebbe had said it was a good idea to see the doctor. They decided to follow the Rebbe's advice to the letter and keep the appointment.
Before examining Chaya, the doctor reviewed all of Chaya's records and arrived at the same conclusion as the Israeli doctors; there was no chance of Chaya ever regaining her sight. When he began to examine Chaya's eye, it was clear from the expression on his face that he was dumbfounded. "Just a minute!" he exclaimed. "I don't understand what is going on here. According to the diagnosis of the Israeli doctors, the situation is hopeless, but I don't see anything wrong with Chaya's eye! It appears to be totally normal."
My brother told the doctor what had happened that morning during their visit to the Rebbe.
"Ah," said the doctor. "The Lubavitcher Rebbe gave you his blessing? Why didn't you tell me before? I know the Lubavitcher Rebbe quite well, and I can tell you many stories."
The doctor asked permission to perform a nuclear examination. The examination would reveal the eye's history including any abnormality which had occurred over the last twenty years. "I am curious," he said, "to see what the condition of the eye was before the Rebbe's blessing."
After the examination, the doctor was in complete shock. "I see nothing. Her eye has returned to its pre-traumatic condition as if nothing ever happened. You can throw out all these papers. They have nothing to do with you anymore."
Today, thank G-d, Chaya is married and a mother. She teaches in her father's school, and whenever she has the chance, she tells her students her own story, to strengthen their faith in the tzadik and leader of the generation.
From Wonders and Miracles, vol. 2
